Beatport is a US-based online music store located in Denver, Colorado that specializes in electronic music, dance music and remixes. Beatport offers
new releases, classic and exclusive tracks, all of which are categorized by genre, such as house music, drum and bass, trance music and techno.
Beatport's graphical user interface, or GUI, was d using Adobe Flash and version 9.0+ of the Adobe Flash plugin is required to view the Beatport
store.
Visitors to Beatport can browse, preview, purchase and download music in a fashion similar to that of the iTunes Music Store. Purchases can be made as
individual tracks or as bundled releases, albums or charts. 'Top Ten' charts are made available on Beatport by DJs and producers who provide
lists of their favorite recommendations on a regular basis. Record labels on Beatport.com are paid on a royalty basis. Beatport can be accessed
directly at www.beatport.com
or from within Traktor DJ Studio software.
Beatport recently launched a new store called Beatsource which is to specialise in urban music. Beatsource claims to be "the first legal online
digital retailer specializing in the global sound of urban music." Beatsource uses the same Adobe flash Interface as its sister site Beatport.

History

The first version of Beatport, 1.0, launched in January 2004. The latest version, Beatport 4.0, was released in January 2009.

In 2005, Beatport was made accessible through a scaled-down GUI embedded within the popular DJ software, Traktor DJ Studio by Native Instruments.
Native Instruments is listed as "proud partner" of Beatport.com. Beatport is also listed as a partner for the online music store Burnlounge.
In February 2007, Beatport launched a viral marketing web widget called the Beatport Player. Built using Adobe Flash and HTML, the MP3 player gives
users the ability to custom, dynamic playlists from Beatport's entire catalog of song previews. Users can embed customized Beatport Player
widgets into nearly any HTML website.
In August 2007, Beatport launched a community-oriented music site, Beatportal, whose stated mission is "...to provide music lovers with up-to-date
information about the world of electronic music". Registered Beatport users can submit news, reviews, podcasts, event listings, radio streams and
photos to Beatportal.com.
In March 2008, Beatport introduced the Beatport Music Awards. Voting began on March 18. In early 2009 Beatport 2.0 replaced its predecessor. It now
includes easier access to its options.

Content

Currently listing more than 8000 labels with thousands of new tracks added each week, Beatport's entire catalog is available for download in MP3,
M4A and WAV (44.1 kHz) formats. Beatport's MP3s are encoded at a bit rate of 320 kbit/s using the LAME codec while the M4A files are encoded at
192 kbit/s VBR using FAAC, respectively.

Some tracks within Beatport's catalog cannot be purchased by some users due to territorial sales restrictions. These restrictions are the result
of licensing agreements made between the original copyright owner and one or more record labels who negotiate sub-licenses to sell content within
specific territories.